nickels

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of nickel.

   The cashier counted out a small stack of nickels for the customer.

   Several nickels rolled under the couch when the jar tipped over.

   Note

   A plural that leaves the metal behind. Nickel the element is a mass noun, so the -s form nearly always counts coins: the five-cent pieces of the US and Canada. American slang extends the count to money in fives, where nickels can mean five-dollar or even five-hundred-dollar sums. Card players use it for fives as well. Context, not the form, tells you which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of nickel.

   The workshop nickels its hardware to protect it from corrosion.

   A local restorer nickels antique fittings so they regain their original luster.

   Note

   Here the -s marks a verb, spelled exactly like the plural of the coin. Its everyday work is transitive: a workshop nickels hardware, coating it with the metal. Because it is transitive, it needs a direct object. British usage keeps a stranger meaning as well, which is to scatter propaganda leaflets from the air. Context usually separates the plating trade from the leaflet drop.

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